After COVID-19, will Canada ever buy new fighter jets, new warships or new submarines? Probably not in your lifetime. Will Canada ever pay its multi-billion-dollar share for new northern warning radars or continental ballistic missile defence?
Highly unlikely for a very long time. Will Canada ever come close to honouring its longstanding commitment to NATO and Washington to spend two per cent of its GDP on defence?
Fat chance. Such opinions are almost universally held in the Canadian Armed Forces today. Government spending is about to be turned upside down by the demands placed on the treasury by COVID-19.
The first casualty in the looming battle for public money will almost certainly be what is the biggest line item in the current budget: